1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shipping comb for use when moving an actuator of a hard disk drive and, more particularly, to a shipping comb for use when moving an actuator of a hard disk drive having a structure which can prevent collision between sliders, each mounting a read/write head, during the movement of an actuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD), which is one of a number of information storing devices for computers, reproduces data stored from a disk or records data on the disk using a read/write head. In the HDD, the read/write head is mounted on a slider installed on an actuator. The actuator moves the head to a desired position on the rotating disk.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a structure of a conventional hard disk drive. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional hard disk drive includes a spindle motor 12 installed on a base member 10, at least one disk 20 fixed to the spindle motor 12, and an actuator 30 moving a read/write head (not shown) for reproducing and recording data to a predetermined position on the disk 20. The actuator 30 includes a swing arm 32 installed on the base member 10 capable of pivoting around an actuator pivot 31, a suspension assembly 40 installed at an end portion of the swing arm 32 and supporting the slider 44 mounting the read/write head to be elastically biased toward a surface of the disk 20, and a voice coil motor (VCM) 36 rotating the swing arm 32. The VCM 36 includes a VCM coil 37 coupled to the other end portion of the swing arm 32 and a magnet 38 arranged to face the VCM coil 37.
The VCM 36 configured as above is controlled by a servo control system to rotate the swing arm 32 in a direction following the Fleming's Left Hand Rule by an interaction between current applied to the VCM coil 37 and a magnetic field formed by the magnet 38. That is, when the power of the hard disk drive is on and the disk 20 starts to rotate in a direction D, the VCM 36 rotates the swing arm 32 counterclockwise in a direction A to move the slider 44 mounting the read/write head toward a recording surface of the disk 20. The slider 44 is lifted by a lift force generated by the rotating disk 20 to a predetermined height from the surface of the disk 20. In this state, the read/write head mounted on the slider 44 reproduces data or records data with respect to the recording surface of the disk 20.
When the hard disk drive is not in use, that is, the rotation of the disk 20 is stopped, the read/write head is parked at a position outside the recording surface of the disk 20 to prevent the read/write head from colliding against the recording surface of the disk 20. For this purpose, a ramp 50 is installed outside the disk 20 and an end-tab 45 supported by the ramp 50 is provided on the suspension assembly 40. When the power of the hard disk drive is off and the disk 20 stops rotation, the VCM 36 rotates the swing arm 32 clockwise in a direction B. Accordingly, the end-tab 45 is moved from the disk 20 to the ramp 50 and supported by the ramp 50.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating the actuator shown in FIG. 1 and the conventional shipping comb installed thereon. FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating a state in which the conventional shipping comb shown in FIG. 2 is installed on the actuator.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the actuator 30 is generally referred to as a head-stack assembly (HSA) and has a plurality of heads corresponding to the number of the recording surfaces of the disk 20. Each of the heads is mounted on the slider 44 which is supported by the suspension assembly 40. Thus, the same number of the suspension assemblies 40 as that of the heads is provided at the actuator 30. Each of the suspension assemblies 40 includes a load beam 41 coupled to an end portion of the swing arm 32 and a flexure 43 attached to the load beam 41. The end-tab 45 is extended from a front end portion of the load beam 41. The slider 44 is attached to the flexure 43. The rear end portion of the flexure 43 is attached to a surface of the load beam 41 that faces the disk 20 while the front end portion thereof is formed to freely move up and down. A dimple 42 is formed at the load beam 41. The dimple 42 provides a predetermined elastic force to the flexure 43. By this structure, the flexure 43 can freely move and accordingly pitching and rolling of the slider 44 attached to the flexure 43 is smoothly accomplished.
The actuator 30 configured as above is installed on the base member 10 of the hard disk drive after it is separately manufactured. While the actuator 30 is being transferred for this purpose, impact or vibration may be applied to the actuator 30. In this case, the sliders 44 arranged to face each other may collide with each other and be damaged accordingly. To prevent this problem, a shipping comb 60 is installed in the actuator 30.
The shipping comb 60 includes a frame 61, an installation rod 62a and a handle 62b provided at an end portion of the frame 61, and a finger 63 provided at the other end portion of the frame 61. The installation rod 62a of the shipping comb 60 is inserted in an installation hole 34 formed in the swing arm 32 of the actuator 30 while the finger 63 is inserted between the load beams 41 facing each other to maintain a constant gap therebetween. The handle 62b is used to pivot the shipping comb 60.
However, it is a problem that, when the conventional shipping comb 60 is installed at the actuator 30, the sliders 44 facing each other may still collide with each other and be damaged thereby. That is, the conventional shipping comb 60 does not have a structure directly to prevent the collision between the sliders 44. Accordingly, during the transfer of the actuator 30, when a relatively large impact or vibration is applied to the actuator 30, the sliders 44 greatly vibrate and thus the sliders 44 facing each other may collide with each other. In this case, an air bearing surface of each of the sliders 44 may be damaged or the head mounted thereon may be damaged so that a lifting ability of the slider 44 or a read/write ability of the head may be deteriorated.